W98 Programs auto-starting?

pompey

This board looks as though it has a lot of information and experts, so I hope that someone can help or point me in the right direction!

I have a PC that runs on W98SE and over the years a number of programs/applications have been installed.

I have started up the machine and before opening any applications, I looked at the task manager and the following were displayed:

Explorer
Realplay
Stimon
Qttask
Incd
Systray
Wmexe
CTmix32

I am ashamed to say that I do not know what all of these are.  Can somebody help?

Which do I need to be running and which can I stop from auto-opening? If I can stop them...how?!

Once I dial-up to my ISP i have also seen running:

Rnaapp
Residence

Hope someone can help - if you need any further info let me know.

Thanks

Pompey

P.S. I do have zone alarm and after reading some of the threads I obviously need more protection!

scheming_gypsy

not sure what some of them are off the top of my head but they're system files rather than actual programs. In the right hand side next to your clock (the system tray you'll have little icons with things that are running.. Such as realplayer.. The explorer is windows explorer - ie your desktop

pompey

Thanks.

It appears that they auto-start...I presume that it is possible to stop them running?

Tony_H_3

Click on the start button, select run & then type "msconfig" once the dialog box opens click on the "Startup" tab to select / deselect which programs you want running.

pompey

Tony H,

Are there any that are critical to be running "in the background" when I start up or can I turn them off at start-up and get them running as and when required?

Thanks

Tony_H_3

Explorer & Systray need to run.

It looks like one is for your sound card ***32 not sure about the others.

If you turn them off & your computer doesn't feel like it's working the same simply run MSCONFIG again and place a tick back in the relevant box.

Obviously ensure that zonealarm is always running as it helps to protect / hide your PC from the net.

pompey

Thanks Tony H.

I will try that tonight when I get home!

Toxteth_OGrady

You can find details of virtually all Task Manager processes here.

Realplay is your Real Player but you don't need it running as a background process. It will start just fine when call it up as an application.

Stimon is Still Image Monitor. Unless you frequently hook up a USB scanner or digital camera to your PC you can safely disable.

Qttask is Quick Time Player. Again like Real Payer just disable it; you don't need it running in background.

InCd can be disabled particularly if you use a 3rd party app for burning CDs.

WMexe is needed for your modem. Leave it alone.

Disable CTmix32.

DO NOT disable Explorer and Systray, your PC won't run Windows without them.

As posted earlier use MSConfig to deactivate.

8)

TOG

pompey

TOG,

Thank you for your comprehensive reply!

Do you know about:

Rnaapp
Residence ?

Cheers

Toxteth_OGrady

Did you try the link??

Residence looks like it might be:

C:\Program Files\Sony Corporation\Picture Package\Picture Package Applications\Residence.exe

Do you have this Sony programme installed?

8)

TOG

D.A.

I quote:

rnaapp.exe is a system executable of the Microsoft Windows Operating System and will be executed when a dialup networking connection is instigated. This program is a non-essential system process, but should not be terminated unless suspected to be causing problems

Hence why it only appears when you dial up.